Celebrate Archives Month at the Wagner Free Institute of Science as we highlight the historic lantern slide collections of some of the region’s most significant cultural and educational institutions during our first-ever lantern slide salon.

Athenaeum of Philadelphia

Independence Seaport Museum

Morris Arboretum Archives

Swarthmore College Peace Collection

Temple University Special Collections and Research Center

University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology

Wagner Free Institute of Science

Predating the motion picture, lantern slides were used for entertainment and to illustrate educational programs and courses. This salon will bring together some unique and rarely-seen images that depict a vast range of subjects: from the local—early engineering feats and turn-of-the century views of Philadelphia’s neighborhoods—to the international—early 20th Century Japanese life, 1930s peace demonstrations in Berlin, the Jewish immigrant experience and more.

The salon will be held in the Wagner’s unchanged Victorian lecture hall using an original lantern slide projector. Join us for a rare treat as we revive an old technology in order to see globally significant lantern slide collections drawn from the libraries and archives of Philadelphia's most distinguished institutions.